Pimp My Cabinets: A Cabinet-Pimping Extravaganza!

Sorry, I just wanted to see how many times I could get the words “cabinet” and “pimp” into one sentence. (Two is the answer.) Let’s get right to the meat and potatoes, shall we?

Ta-daa!

As promised, the cabinets are done! Aren’t they glorious? And pretty amazing, when you consider what they used to look like:

Can you believe those are the same cabinets? I honestly can’t, and I was there for the entire transformation — a process that started 3 months ago.

Yikes.

BTW, every other blogger I follow has done a cabinet-painting project that takes them, like, a weekend. Maybe an entire week, tops. To them, and to anyone else who’s done it, I address this question, “HOW??!” I mean, I admit, we could have done ours in waaay less than 3 months if we had just tried a little bit…one month would have been reasonable. But a week? Nuh-uh.

Most of my friends and family doubting my design judgement (I didn’t tell you about that part).

In the face of dissent, I just did what I always do: I stuck my fingers in my ears and yelled “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU AND MY IDEA IS AWESOME LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!” and barrelled on through to Phase 2: Painting.

The realization that if you don’t count the ribbon thing, this was one of the few kitchen projects that took exactly as long as I thought it would, and was exactly as easy as I thought it would be. It’s nice to avoid all those amorous monkeys and their footballs once in a while.

I loved walking into the kitchen and seeing the happy pink zigzags, but alas, my love affair with the fabric was destined to be a secret and occasional thing; I had to move on to Phase 5: Closing things up.

I figured, if the doors had to cover up the happy pink zigzags, then we might as well make the doors look classy. Highlights include:

The end of the “Pimp My Cabinets” series, so you don’t have to read the words “pimp” and “cabinet” in the same sentence anymore.

And now? It’s time for vindication that my judgement was spot-on. 🙂

Now, I’m kind of a stickler for before-and-afters; I hate it when they’re not shot from the same angle. So I feel the need to assure you that although the angle is a little off, the following pictures are indeed of the same corner of our kitchen.

Obviously, we changed a little more than just the color of the cabinets.

Hehheeheheee. I never get tired of looking at these.

Of course, as awesome as all of this is, if you look closely at the pictures you can see that the kitchen is not quite done yet. We have a few finishing touches to put on yet, like switchplate covers and window casing and pulling up the carpet on the stairs. And a bathroom door would be nice. So stay tuned, because I’ve got a lot more coming!

In the mean time, I want to hear from those of you out there who have managed to knock out cabinet-painting projects in a week or less. What’s your secret? And where can I get some?

Comments

Great job Sarah – love the transformation! I also hear you on this being a way longer process than 1 week. We’re building new doors and drawer fronts to complicate our cabinet painting process but the original doors just weren’t going to cut it.

I LOVE IT!! I will get to tackle my kitchen project in June of 2014 when we move to our ranch house. I will keep you updated on how long it takes for us to complete it, might take longer than a month since we are gutting the whole kitchen moving things around to how we like it, and adding a pantry.

Hi Susan! Nope, we didn’t paint them. We used a concrete product called Ardex to skim-coat the counters. Looks like concrete, but it’s almost as easy as painting! You can read more about that process in this post. Thanks for reading!

We repainted ours over Memorial Day weekend one year. We only got the cabinets painted and doors, didn’t get them screwed back on. We had no kids at the time. It took us just that week to screw them back on. Two week just for the cabinets to be sanded, painted and doors put back on. I also painted the insides (fumes).. wish I had your paint sprayer. Now flash forward 10 years…white cabinets show everything, especially with kids, two dogs. There are dings and nicks. We are flipping the doors to get an updated misison look. I’m going to paint the bottome cabinets grey and I’m debating on painting the tops grey since I have to repaint and resand them anyways…. We have to add some cut out over stove to move microwave and also add new sink and countertop (grey and white). I think if you have people who 1 know what they are doing and a solid plan wiht all materials you can whip this stuff out in a long weekend. You have to have “Friends” who can come over and help out. Most of our friends are not skilled and also have kids. I wish every project was as easy as it is on TV. If you notice on TV they have so many people there in the house. Anyways I love your cabinets. Did you ever consider using contact paper inside the cabinets..you can change this out, or even beadboard painted different color. I just saw that on tv…way cool…

Hi Jill! It’s good to know that I’m not just the slowest renovator in the world. 😉 I did consider contact paper, but I went with fabric because it comes in so many more colors and patterns. Plus it adds a bit of texture and warmth that I don’t get from contact paper.

Hey there! Good morning from a new fan from way down South Louisiana! I’d like to start out by saying your kitchen looks fantastic!! Kudos on getting the hubs to agree on the fabric backing! 😉 We’re in the agonizing process of remodeling our what-was-supposed-to-be-turn-key new home. Let’s just say the sellers were less than honest about the ohhhh…ENTIRE HOUSE! 🙁 Skipping over the whole termite, mold, leaking, outdated, not-up-to-code, DIY FAIL background of the house, we’ll just move on to the “good stuff.” *I use that term ever so loosely!* Lol! I like (LOVE!) the whole “embiggening” process! Did you ever consider making the “embiggened” part functional? That’s the dilemma I’m facing right now. :\ We have 9 1/2′ ceilings (yep, not 8, not 9, not 10…9 1/2! *reference back to the whole code & DIY FAIL thing) and the kitchen cabinets only go up to about 6 1/2′. I desperately want to “embiggen”, but with the lack of cabinets, I’d really (REALLY!) like to add some more cabinet space. We’re building our own new cabinet doors, & I’m just not sure if one big huge door to cover all of it would be better (easier) to do than separate doors. ??? The upper part would be somewhat of the same ratio as yours…the “embiggened” part not as tall as your original cabinets, but comparable in size to say, cabinets above a stove. I’d definitely do the small trim piece above the original cabinets, to separate the 2 (& frankly, take up some space! Lol!) but, would it just look too busy to add the additional doors? What if *new idea* I just left them open, like cubbies?! Then, the gorgeous fabric I’m going to choose, would be a constant, small, but constant, pop of color while adding storage at the same time!! The cubbies would house all those super-pretty-yet-rarely-used dishes & such! Oh, how I love those good ol’ brain fart ideas that pop up out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation! 😀 We’re planning on adding crown moulding not only to the top of the cabinets, but on the wall/ceiling as well, so I’d like the “embiggening” to “biggen” them about an additional 2-3′. I’m just afraid the solid, plain section would look, well…too plain. What do you think? Too much? I’d love (LOVE!) your thoughts/input/suggestions! Sorry for the novella-ish comment! 😉

Hi Tabitha! Wow, ok…let’s just start with this: yes, I did consider making the top part functional. I decided against it because:

Cost. The simplest forms are the cheapest. Adding doors and hinges and hardware (or making new super-tall doors) would have added significantly to the cost.Accessibility. We’d have to keep a stepladder around, just to reach the stuff on top. Where do I store the stepladder so that I’m not tripping over it? And if the stepladder is always in storage, am I really going to want to get it out every time I need to reach something?Storage issues. I very much prefer to have less stuff than more storage. It’s a personal thing. We don’t have anything in our kitchen that falls into the category or “super-pretty-yet-rarely-used.” If something is pretty, I want to use it and enjoy it often. If something doesn’t get used often, I’d rather not have it taking up space in my house.

On doors vs open cubbies: I think cubbies would look cool. Especially with a fun background, like fabric. And especially with their own lighting, to show off your pretty things. But the thought of open shelving in my kitchen horrifies me. I know it’s the cool thing to do. But we have pets, which means we have fur. Everywhere. I saw what the tops of our cabinets looked like when we took them down, and the combination of dust/grease/fur was less than appetizing. I couldn’t picture myself standing on the counters and dusting/degreasing the cubbies on a regular basis. Doors mean that I don’t have to do extra cleaning.

Just a note about scale, for your reference:

Our ceilings are 9.5 feet tall.
Our base cabinets come up to 36 inches (standard).
Our back splash is 21 inches (taller than standard).
Our upper cabinets are 30 inches (standard).
The “embiggened” part of the cabinets is 12 inches.

I can’t tell you exactly what route to go, because everyone (and every kitchen!) is different. But those are the things that I took into consideration when I planned this project. Hope it helps!

Hi there!!! Just happened upon your blog and I love how your kitchen turned out. I am looking for backsplash ideas…love marble but hate the expense. Love ceramic but it is kind of over-done and dull. And THEN I see yours….TA DA….best of both worlds. Can you please tell me where you got them and the cost? I appreciate your time. Sincerely, Christie

Hi Christie! I’m glad you found me! We got our tiles from The Tile Shop. There called “Carrera Gris Gloss” and they’re 3×6 subway tiles (more information here). They were $6.99 a square foot. They actually come in lots of different sizes and proportions, so you could do a lot of different things with them besides the traditional subway pattern.

awesome sarah u go girl, me im tackling an idea i was given by home depot, i want crown molding on my upper kitchen cabinets but i cannot afford too expensive so this guy suggested to make my own molding from cardboard, but i wonder sarah wouldnt that make my cabinets ugly and he said no after u finish just paint with a small brush but use flat paint no glossy, so sarah should i?

Jenny, if it were me, I wouldn’t do it. Crown molding isn’t that expensive (I only needed 3 8-foot pieces for my cabinets, which was less than $30 total), and I cannot even begin to imagine how you make your own out of cardboard. Sounds like a lot more trouble than it’s worth. But nothing’s really stopping you, if you want to give it a try.

First off…kudos with a big K to you! This is gorg! I would love to know what the total cost of your remodeling project was. Would love to do ours (and would love to do it ourselves) but I just don’t see it happening under 10-20k. We painted the existing cabinets and the plethora of purpleish pink tiles (same hideous ones that are in the main bathroom) but it still needs to be done-done (not a typo. Just a way of emphasizing how much it needs to be done!)

Hi Keisha! Our total cost was around $11k, and we DIYed EVERYTHING. We tore the kitchen and bathroom down to the studs, so that includes all the expensive parts of a remodel — structural changes, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc — for two of the most expensive rooms in a house. If you can avoid some of those things, and keep it to one room, and you’re willing to put in an awful lot of work and cook on a hotplate in your living room for a while and live in a big dusty mess, you could remodel a kitchen for under $10k.